Improvement in water-wheels



PATENT GEEIGE.

ROBERT WILSON, OF MCALEVYS FORT, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,690, dated October6, 1874; application filed April 18, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT WILSON, of McAlevys Fort, in the county ofHuntingdon and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and valuableImprovement in Water- Wheels and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description of the construction andoperation Of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings,making a part ot' this specification, and to the letters and iigures Ot'reference marked there- Figure l of the drawings is a representation ofa horizontal section of my water-wheel, and Fig. 2 is a transversesectienal view of the same. Fig. 3 is a detail view.

This inventionhas rela-tion to Water-wheels of the horizontal kind,wherein a number of scrolls and chutes are, employed for the purpose ofdirecting Water 'to the surface of the buckets.

The object of the invention is to provide a Wheel Whose buckets shallhave suitable form and shall bear proper geometrical relations to theirentering and discharging mouths; and it consists in constructing eachbucket in the shape of a quarter' of a cylinder, whose radius is equalto the distance between Jdie outer and inner edges of the wheel-rim, andWhose axis is vertical, intersecting the outer edge of said wheel-rim,and coincides with a radial plane of the wheel passing 'through .theinner edge of the bucket.

In the accompanying drawings, the letterA designates the upper, and Bthe lower, rim or plate of my wheel. O C designate the buckets, whichare preferably of wrought-iron. Each bucket is very nearly a quarter ofa cylinder, and is applied between said rims or plates, with its axisvertical and its coneavity inthe direction Of the mouths of the feedingscrolls and chutes. The axis of each bucket intersects the outer edgesof the wheel-rims, and is coincident with a plane radiating from thecenter of the wheel and passing the inner edge of said bucket. Theradius of curvature of the bucket is equal tothe distance between theOuter and inner edges ofthe wheelrim.`

Hence each bucket is truly tangent to the inner surface of the Wheel,and intersects its outer surface very nearly at right angles.

In a wheel of twenty inches diameter the radius of the inner edge of theWheel-rim will be seven inches. The rim will be three inches in width,and three inches Will be the radius of curvature of the bucket. Byobserving the rules of construction above laid down the tangentialposition'of the buckets to the inner or discharging surface of the wheelwill be readily secured, with the following results: The Water broughtto the wheel in ducts, commonly called scrolls and chutes, is dashedagainst the colmayities of the buckets, causing the wheel to revolve.After the Water has expended its force upon the bucket its course isturned in the direction of ,the inner curve of the bucket, avoiding theconvex lower end of the next bucket, or so slightly impinging against itas in no degree to impede or obstruct the revolution of the wheel by theback- Water.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

The water-wheel having the radiuses of its entering and dischargingsurfaces as l0 to 7,

and equidistant buckets, each a quarter cylinder, Whose radius ofvcurvature is equal to the parallel distance between said entering anddischarging surfaces, and whose axis is at said entering-surface andcoincident with a radial plane passing through the dischargingedge ofsaid bucket, as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my namein the presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT WILSON. Witnesses:

DAVID C. SCOTT, JOHN G. GAsY.

